Linn-Mar girls’ soccer team with ‘crazy talent’ has first-year coach Hannah Clark fitting in seamlessly

MARION — First-year Linn-Mar girls’ soccer coach Hannah Clark has always competed at the highest level.

Growing up in Fort Collins, Colo., Clark played for the ECNL’s (Elite Clubs National League) Colorado Nike Rush from 2007 to 2012 — a team that won multiple State Cups during her time there.

Her next stop was Iowa City, where she was the Hawkeyes’ goalkeeper from 2012 to 2016. Clark was named Iowa’s MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in 2015 — she’s also first in career shutouts, second in victories and third in saves.

Clark spent two seasons (2016 and 2017) playing professionally in Sweden before returning to Iowa in 2017 to recover from an injury. She then made the decision to stay and coach.

“I’ve been crazy competitive my whole life,” Clark said.

It’s in her blood.

“My parents both played college sports,” Clark said. “My dad played soccer at Marshall University and my mom played softball at Virginia Wesleyan.”

So why is a person of Clark’s competitive prowess comfortable “sitting back and relaxing” while coaching this year’s Lions?

“(Coaching this team) it's been really easy for me,” Clark said. “At this point, it's honestly just player management and putting them into the formation that I think is right for a certain game.

“They're all very good soccer players. I’m super lucky. Marco (de Leon) did a really good job with them previously, so I've just walked in, sat back and relaxed and watched them play.”

Clark took over for de Leon, who stepped down earlier this year. De Leon had been the program’s coach since 2015.

The transition has been seamless as the Class 3A fifth-ranked Lions are off to a 5-2 start. Their two losses came in one-score matchups away from home against 3A No. 1 Waukee Northwest and 3A No. 2 West Des Moines Valley on back-to-back days in late March.

“I would say we’re probably one of the top four teams in the state right now,” Clark said. “Waukee Northwest was really good. We battled. It was 0-0 with about 10 minutes left. We scored a goal and then they scored to tie it with about two minutes left. Then with 40 seconds left they scored again.”

Linn-Mar took West Des Moines Valley to the wire the following day in Ankeny.

“We hung in with them,” Clark said. “Honestly, we just got unlucky. But we can compete with these teams.”

After beating Cedar Rapids Prairie, 8-0, on Wednesday and 2A No. 10 Cedar Rapids Xavier, 2-0, on Thursday, the Lions will play seven of their final 10 regular-season games against ranked opponents.

“We're looking for higher competition,” Clark said. “I know the girls are hungry for it as well. We’ll get that here soon with the schedule coming up.”

Junior Abi Roberts, the team’s leading scorer, believes her team is ready for the challenges ahead, too.

“I feel like the first few games set the tone on the standard we need to be at for the season to make it to state again and compete with the highest-level teams,” Roberts said. “We have a strong team this year with a lot of different people who can score.”

Clark’s smooth transition to Lions coach is partly due to her previous experience working with some of her current players.

“Hannah was my coach when I was in the U10-U12 area,” Roberts said. “I feel like a lot of us have had her in the past and she has really made an impact to the team this year.”

Clark also became Mount Mercy University’s head women’s soccer coach last November and has been a part of the Cedar Rapids soccer community for more than eight years, serving as a club coach for Cedar River Soccer Association (CRSA) and FC United. She is an owner of High Definition (HD) Soccer Training in Cedar Rapids.

“I actually had a lot of these girls when they were 9, 10 years old, so it's kind of crazy,” Clark said. “They're all grown up now, seniors, juniors, it's been really fun seeing how they've matured.”

While she may be calmly coaching the Lions right now, her competitive flame sparked when talking about the ultimate goal for this team.

“I want to win state,” Clark said. “They want to win state. We have some crazy talent here. Let's do it.”